Setting-stem for watches.



O. OHLSON.

SETTING STEM FOR WATCHES.

APPLICATION FILED APR.1,1912. v 1,114,907.

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( 6.2% @fiisam I I V WMQML Qqi Patented 0ct.27,1914.

UNITED STATES PATENT curios.

OLOF OHLSON, OF WEST NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOE TO WALTHAM VATCH COMPANY, OF WALTHAM,

MAS$ACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS.

SETTING-STEM FOR WATCHES.

Specification of Letters Patent. Application filed April 1, 1912.

Patented 0a. 27, 1914. Serial No. 687,682.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Onor ()HLSON, a citizen of the United States, and resident of lVest Newton, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Setting-Stems for Watches, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to an improvement in the arrangement of the winding and setting stem of a watch in the frame of the watch movement and to an improvement in the means by which the stem is yieldingly held in either winding or setting position.

The object of the invention is to so dispose the holding or retaining means for this purpose in such a position that two important effects may be secured; first, a stem wound and set watch without a pendant may be produced, and, secondly, the pendant of a pendant watch may be made with the least possible thickness so as to conform artistically to the proportions of thin watches.

WVith this object the invention consists of the improvements which I will now describe and claim.

Two forms of watch both embodying the invention are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, one of them shown in Figures 1, 2, and 3 being a watch without a pendant adapted to be worn as a bracelet or locket watch. Fig. 1 is a partial front elevation of such a watch showing apart of the case and the crown. Fig. 2 is a cross section on line 22 of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a View similar to Fig. 2 but showing thestem in a different position. Fig. 4 is an elevation similar to Fig. 1 showing a pendant watch in which the invention is incorporated. Fig. 5 is a cross section on line 5-5 of Fig. Fig. 6 is a view showing in elevation and in'longitudinal section the improved retaining means for the setting stem or bar.

The same reference characters indicate the same parts in all the figures.

In the drawings 1 represents the pillar plate or face plate, 2 represents one of the top plates or bridges, 3 the ring-shaped central part of the case, or case center as .it is called, 4 the back of the case, 5 the bezel in which the crystal is mounted, which forms the front cover of the case, 6 a winding and setting bar or stem, and 7 the crown which is screwed upon such bar and is rotated in either winding the main spring or setting the hands of the watch. The crown is screwed on the bar 6 in the usual way, and in Figs. 1, 2, and 3 such bar is shortened so that when in the winding position the crown is close to the case. This allows the guard ring to extend only a slight distance from the case and enables the watch to be worn as part of a bracelet or in the manner of a locket.

. The bar is movable endwise in being displaced from winding to setting position and vice versa, and is held in either of these positions by spring jaws 8 which embrace the bar and are adapted to lie on either side of a shoulder 9 on the latter. The faces of this shoulder are beveled so that the lock afforded by the spring jaws is a yielding and not a positive one, whereby the bar may be moved by application of sufiicient force upon the crown, although the jaws hold the bar with sufficient firmness to prevent accidental displacement from either posi tion. with which the aws are engaged when the bar is in winding position is more steeply beveled than the other side, in order to retain the bar more firmly in the winding position than it is retained in the setting position.

Preferably the spring jaws S are formed by longitudinal cuts 10 in a sleeve 1]. (shown in detail. in Fig. 6), which sleeve has an inturned flange 12 on one end to form the active portions of the jaws, and an out-turned flange 13 on the other end to afford a means for securing it in place.

This out-turned flange is of such propor tions and dimensions that it is gripped between a. part of the case center and the plates 1 and 2 of the watch movement when the latter is in the case, as shown in the sectional views. Preferably the part of the case which enggges the flange 13 is a tube or sleeve 14 passing radially through the case center and secured immovably therein with itsinner end engaging the flange. Its outer end projects beyond the circumference of the case and extends for some distance into an annular groove 15 in the crown surrounding that portion of the latter which is engaged with the bar 6. The purpose of Preferably that side of the shoulder the sleeve 14 is to protect the bar and jaws,

avoiding exposure thereof even when the crown and bar are pulled out to their fullest extent. A square shoulder 16 on the bar crown-the pendant is provided with-bosses means for: the attachment of a guard ring.

The essential features of the invention are the same wheneapplied to apendant watch of'the sort shown in Figs 4ai1d The only important differences are; that the. winding and setting foot portiorr18 whi'chpasses through the: vease center in a substantially-radial manner and is secured. therein, performing the same the movement frame to gript "e base flange of the retaining device. Onsthe-outer end the pendant has asleeve 19 entering. the groove 15 of the crown 7 h Adjacent to the r'unction asthesleeve-l, cooperating-w th ishpu'lder with inclined faces,

20 ofnsual-chara'cter and form to hold the .ends'of-the'. guard ring orbow 21 Thepend-- ant is in efi'ectthe-isameas the sleeve or tube 14 being simply elongated and having {The resilient retaining means :may be considered as a set of jaws which are detachably gripped at their base-portion between the as-shown. in Figs. 1, 2, and 3,

requires to be only 'thic without twisting.

been possible.

uperiphery of the movement-frame and the adjacent part of the case center and their active-or operative ends extend outwardly from their points of attachment. This construction enables the retaining means to be located, to all intents. and purposes, entirely within then-outer circumference 'of'the case. Consequently in the case of awatch, such it is possible to bring the crown so close to the case as to be practically in contact with it, while in the case of the pendant watch, the pendant may be made much narrower than has heretofore The extent to which the pendant may --be narrowed is limited only by the thickness of the windin bar, and the latter enough to sustain the power of the main spring in winding That; is, the pendant need not be large enough in its shorter diam-. eter to admit any. other parts than the bar alone and consequentlyit may be designed bar is provided with an extension .6? of any-desired.- length, which is incased ,in a pendant v 17. ,Thellatter has a in artistic proportion to the thinnest of thin watches. When the movement is removed from -the--case,;the bar retainer is prevented from falling out by'its shoulder 16 of the bar, bar can be readily removed together u on unscrewing the crown from the outer end of "the bar.'

. "I claim:

1. In a watch the combination of a case having an annular center, a sleeve passing radially through .said case center and secured immovably thereto, a movementsfitvting in said case center a winding and-setting-bar passing through said sleeve into c0nnection' with the movement and having a and a retainer flange gripped for said bar having a base --between-the-mner end of the sleeve and the movement, and-having.- spring jaws within the-sleeve'embracing said bar. and arranged toenga e the shoulder thereof, the outer ilimitso said jaws being substantiallyin the outer circumference of the case center.

2. Ina watch the combination of a case having an annnlarcenter,asleeve passing radially through said case center and secured 1 immovably thereto, a movement fitting in said vcase center,}a winding and setting bar passing through said sleeve into connection with the movement and having a shoulder with inclined faces, and a retainer for said bar consisting of a sleeve located within the first-named sleeve and surrounding the bar, having an out-turned flange on its inner end underlying the inner end of the first sleeve and grippedbetween the latter and the movement, and having an inturned flange andbeing longitudinally cut on its outer end to provide springjaws adapted to engage the shoulder of the bar, the length of said retainer being approximately equal to the radial distance between theinner and outer circumferences of the case center.

Intestimony whereof I have aflixed my signature, in presence of two witnesses.

. OLQF OHLSON.

- Witnesses: v

E. BATCHELDER, P. W. 'Pnzzn'rrr.

engagement with the but the retainer and v 

